Orca Mothers, Salmon, and the Fight for Survival
Editor's Note: This blog was authored by Sarah Plane, ICL's Community Engagement Data Specialist.
A Familiar Tragedy
For the second time this year, a mother orca carrying her deceased calf has made headlines. On September 12, 2025, the Center for Whale Research confirmed that Southern Resident orca J36, known as Alki, was pushing a deceased calf, with the umbilical cord still attached. Just days later, her sister J42 (Echo) was seen with a newborn calf. One sister in mourning; the other fighting for her calf’s survival.
Why This Matters Beyond the Coast
For those of us inland, the story may feel distant. Yet Idaho’s rivers and salmon runs are deeply tied to the fate of these whales.The Salish Sea — 6,534 square miles of sea surface area stretching across Washington and British Columbia — is home to 37 marine mammal species, including four distinct ecotypes of orca:
- Southern Resident Killer Whales (SRKW)
- Bigg’s Killer Whales (transients)
- Northern Resident Killer Whales (NRKW)
- Offshore Killer Whales
Each ecotype has its own culture, diet, physical distinctions, language, family structure and habitat. Although their habitats do overlap in places, they do not cross-breed, interact, or engage with other ecotypes in any known way.
Diverging Fates
In the last several decades a unique shift has occurred in the Salish Sea. Sightings of SRKWs have dwindled, while those of the Bigg’s (once called transients for their sporadic visits in the Salish Sea) have surged. The once predictable timing to see SRKWs in the summer months has become all but a memory, while Bigg’s can be sighted around the Salish Sea nearly every single day of the year. Bigg’s whales thrive on a mammal-rich diet (porpoise, seal, sea lions), with a 90% calf survival rate and a booming population of 400+. At times it feels as though a new calf shows up every week. The Northern Residents are also growing, with 300+ individuals. These fish eaters remain farther north, benefitting from less populated coastlines and healthier marine conditions. Southern Residents, however, are in crisis: their numbers have fallen to just 75, with a 50% calf survival rate and a miscarriage rate near 70%. Heartbreakingly, mothers like Alki — who has now lost five calves — face loss after loss. Bigg’s and NRKWs show us this is not normal. The relentless toll of repeated calf deaths threatens to erase the SRKWs entirely if left unaddressed.
Why Are SRKWs Struggling?
Southern Residents face many of the same threats as other ecotypes — vessel noise that disrupts echolocation, runoff pollution that poisons their bodies, and warming seas that stress the ecosystem. But what sets them apart is that these challenges collide with a devastating shortage of prey.Bigg’s orcas are utilizing the same noisy waters, and in fact, eat a step higher in the marine food web, making them susceptible to even higher loads of toxicants and pollutants. Yet with abundant prey resources, they maintain peak body condition throughout their range, and throughout the year, thus seemingly unaffected by the other variables. SRKWs, in contrast, rely primarily on endangered Chinook salmon. These salmon are fewer, smaller, and harder to find than they once were. When Chinook are scarce, SRKWs starve. As they burn fat reserves, stored toxins flood their bloodstreams, causing miscarriages, calf deaths, and even adult mortality. The combination of low calf survival, high miscarriage rates, and food stress has left this population unable to recover — pushing them to the brink of extinction.
Southern Residents Need Salmon
Historically, the SRKWs had large, fatty, nutritious and abundant chinook salmon to eat, over half of which came from the runs leading into Idaho. Central Idaho’s high mountain streams still provide a cold water refuge and pristine habitat that Salmon desperately need. The Clearwater and Salmon river systems remain the best Chinook salmon habitat anywhere in the lower 48 states. But the fish cannot access this habitat. Four dams on the lower Snake River in Washington block their migration, and have been driving wild salmon and steelhead toward extinction for decades.
Removing the four Lower Snake River dams is a vital, centerpiece action to restoring these crucial salmon runs. Urgently advancing dam service replacement and salmon restoration projects in the near term will create immediate benefits for Northwest ecosystems and communities alike, paving the way to a salmon-abundant future for orcas.
Policy and Setbacks
For decades, Tribes, conservation groups, and the states of Washington and Oregon have pushed for solutions to protect both Orca and Salmon. When Tahlequah carried her calf in 2018, Governor Jay Inslee created the Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery Taskforce to recommend protections for this unique population. The Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement (RCBA), signed in 2023, marked a major shift. Federal agencies, sovereign states, Tribes, and regional stakeholders pledged to restore salmon while strengthening energy, transportation, irrigation, and recreation systems. But in June 2025, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum pulling federal agencies out of the RCBA, once again placing the future of salmon and SRKWs in peril.
Shared Loss, Shared Responsibility
When another Southern Resident calf dies, it is not just a coastal tragedy. Inland, we see empty rivers where salmon once ran red, and we recognize that these mothers mourn not only their calves — but the fish too.Salmon, Orcas, and Tribes need a restored Columbia Basin and a Free Flowing Lower Snake River. Tell your members of Congress that you support the Columbia Basin Restoration Initiative and want healthy and abundant salmon populations in the Northwest!